the storm that rages outside
by alsoalsowik
Summary: TLBD. William is supposed to be flying home from Hong Kong tonight, but his flight has been delayed due to the storms currently raging over San Francisco. Rationally, Lizzie knows that everything will be fine. Airplanes are pretty safe, and William's been on plenty of trips. Nothing has ever happened. So why is she so worried?


A/N: Hey there! This has been sitting in my WIP folder for a while, so I thought I'd finish it and share with y'all. Thank you to my Beta, Lindsay, for reading this over for me!

* * *

The rain is coming down in sheets as Lizzie looks wearily at her alarm clock.

_2:17 AM_

William is supposed to be flying home from Hong Kong tonight, but his flight has been delayed due to the storms currently raging over San Francisco. Rationally, Lizzie knows that everything will be fine. Airplanes are pretty safe, and William's been on plenty of trips. Nothing has ever happened. So why is she so worried?

Oh yeah. Because it's 2:17 in the morning and she's alone in their large house that won't stop creaking (aren't only _old _houses supposed to creak?), with a three year old girl that won't stop crying out for her daddy. Oh, and she's six months pregnant. That's why.

But now the wind is howling and Lizzie hears the patter of two little feet down the large hallway (that is _still_ creaking.) leading from the nursery to the master suite. _Great_. It took almost all night to get Anna asleep in the first place. There were lots of lullabies and even an ill-fated attempt at costume theatre. Somehow, Anna was able to tell that just because Lizzie had a newsie hat and bowtie, she was not William.

So now Lizzie hears a desperate, "Momma, I want my daddy!" from her daughter, and it breaks her heart.

"Come here, baby. Daddy will be home soon, okay? You can sleep with me tonight, though,"

…

"Momma, you got all the blankies. Share!"

…

"Shh… he'll be home soon. I promise."

…

It's going to be a long night.

* * *

Now it's raining even harder, if that's even possible, and Lizzie is kind of starting to seriously worry. She turns over, careful not to shift Anna from her position curled into her side, and looks at the alarm clock again.

_3:32 AM_

Suddenly, all Lizzie can think of is the conversation she and William had about his parent's death. They were flying in a private plane through a storm, on their way to see Gigi's swim meet the next morning. At around midnight, the plane went down. No. That won't happen, and Lizzie knows it. William called when they landed in Tokyo for storms.

Still, the thought of losing her husband sends a chill down her spine. Life has been incredibly good for them so far. They got married three and a half years ago (she may have been pregnant at the time, but who cares?) and then their daughter Anna was born. Anna Catherine Darcy was the light of her father's (and everyone around her's) life, which was amazing. And then, just a few weeks ago, she and William found out that they were having a boy. So losing him would be unimaginable.

_No. _She's not going to even think like this. So, she rubs her stomach and focuses on her daughter's breathing; in and out, with a few snuffles in-between. Suddenly the phone rings, and _-oh god-_ Lizzie is terrified. A million thoughts race through her mind, like, _What if this is somebody calling about a plane crash?_ And, _I hope that didn't wake Anna up…_

* * *

Lifting the receiver to her ear, she is relieved to hear her husband's voice on the line.

"Lizzie? I know it's a quarter to four in the morning, but I seem to have misplaced my key, and it seems to be, uh, raining rather hard outside. Lizzie? Are you there?"

"Yes! S-sorry, I'm just, um, I'll be right there!"

Gently moving her daughter over, she slips on one of William's olds Harvard sweatshirts and all but runs to the front door. She unlocks it quickly, and then opens it to see a soaking wet William Darcy standing on the porch. Without warning, she runs into his arms, forcing them both into the (still) pouring rain.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" William asks, cradling his wife's face.

"Nothing… I just," she pauses to wipe her eyes of tears she didn't know were falling (which is incredibly ineffective in the rain). "I thought something horrible was going to happen, and I was freaking out and-"

"Well, nothing happened. I'm right here," he murmurs, gently kissing her forehead.

"Let's go inside, Will. There's someone who _really _wants to see you,"

In hindsight, waking Anna up may not have been their _best_ idea ever, but the smile on her face when she saw her daddy was definitely worth it. Watching her husband cradle their daughter and trying to get her back to sleep (for the third time that night), Lizzie rubs her stomach and thinks, _Yeah, everything's fine._


End file.
